Life Before Hogwarts: Hermione Granger's Tale
by FantasyAddict97-10
Summary: My mom was calling me a freak. "I wasn't normal to begin with, I'll never be normal." "I know where you can be normal," Snape said. "The mental institution? I don't think anyone has ever gone through all this weird... almost magic disease."
1. Chapter 1

**My first Harry Potter fic! I usually write Maximum Ride, a few Hunger Games. I really wanted to write a HP story. I hope you like it!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own J.K's wonderful series, though I won this plot and any unrecognized characters.**

I was born to Muggles, expected to be a bright girl, become a doctor or a lawyer. "Whatever will grant you a good adult life," my parents said.

That was my life's plan - _my _plan. Travel to Harvard in the United States, or University of Oxford in UK, at least a Master's degree (Bachelor's degree if I feel like more school). School and learning were my basic hobbies. I wouldn't play with my friends outside - the few people who would befriend the 'weird' girl. I would set under the big oak tree in my yard with my nose in a book.

I was named an outsider in my school pretty quick, because I actually _liked_ it. When I was little I wouldn't steal my mother's makeup and beg to wear it to school like the other girls, or throw big temper fits when she said no. Toys bored me.

When I grew older, I wouldn't cause drama at school or spread rumors or gossip (so most of it was about me). Starting in third grade I, along with everyone else, started realizing I was different - in a scary, unusual, unnatural way. Natural body chemistry couldn't explain this one.

My love for novels about wizards and werewolves (which, by the way, I now realize are vicious and offending stereotypes) didn't tip them off - I'd always been interested in that. It was when I started attacking - without laying a finger on - the Drama Freak Gossip Girls (DFGGs).

-_Flashback-_

_"Did you hear?" a blond-headed DFGG said, just feet away from me. "Hermoine Granger is crushing on Caleb Smithers!"_

_"Really?" a brunette DFGG laughed. "Caleb would never crush on her, no one would! She doesn't stand a chance!" She smiled as Caleb ran past with one of his friends. She twirled her hair and winked, even though his back was turned. She giggled. His head turned and he frowned at her and rolled his eyes._

_We were on the playground. I sat on a bench reading about Bigfoot sightings - most of them were bored guys dressed in monkey suits._

_They continued to laugh about how Caleb Smithers (Who, by the way, I never had a crush on. I didn't even know his last name.) would grow up to marry one of them and would never date a freak like me if I were the last girl on earth._

_"She's a hermit!" the blond yelled. "Her and those stupid myth books!"_

_I was on my feet before I even realized what she said, my Bigfoot book in the dirt. The DFGGs stopped giggling, their faces turning to fear._

_Instantly the blond shot through the air, landing in the top of a huge pine tree. Everyone's glances switched from me to the DFGG and back. The second DFGG's eyes were glued to her friend in the tree and screamed, "Hermoine you freak! How did you do that?"_

_It scared me to death. I just wished she wasn't wasn't standing in front of me, then she was in the pine._

-_End of Flashback-_

My teachers and principal were baffled. There were plenty of witnesses, but they didn't really have any explanation. No one did.

I went home and cried. Everyone was right - I was a freak. Even my own parents were scared to come close to me, which just hurt my feelings worse. I was even more detached from the rest of the world. I was scaring myself worse than anyone else.

That was the first time my witch's powers started showing. More followed. Everything slowly felt normal again - or, as normal as it could get for someone like me. All I knew was that strange things happen when I got mad or upset. Everyone tried to keep me happy so I wouldn't burn their house down or inflect a case of leprosy or something.

But that's beside the point. What I wanted to tell you started one year later - in the forth grade. You know, the start of the awkward body-changing, even more drama, hormone stage you don't think will ever end, the grade that everyone shutters when you ask if you can take them on a field trip to their business.

"Hermoine," Principal Warren said, sticking his head in the classroom door. "Come with me, please."

The class did that annoying 'Oooo!' thing when you're called to the office, and normally it's just to pick up a package. The teacher started yelling at them to stop, Principal Warren laughed. I slowly stood up and followed him out the door.

"You're not in trouble, Hermoine," he said. "You're mother wants to talk to you. She said it's urgent."

Mom thought the crashing of the Titanic was 'bad, but not a big deal'. Her version of urgent would be the end of human life as we know it.

"Principal Warren, urgent for her is what we'd call disastrous."

"Call me Mr. Phil, Hermoine. I like for students to call me by my first name."

"Alright Princ - _Mr. Phil."_

Sure enough, Mom was sitting in ... Mr. Phil's office, next to a man in a white labcoat, a crumpled copy of a PHD medical degree sticking out of his pocket, his face shielded by a black flat top hat tilted to the side so you could only see his sharp chin.

"Hello, Hermoine," the freak doctor said, not moving his hat. His voice was slow and thick, showing no emotion.

Mom stood up and hugged me. "Hermoine, I've found a way to fix you're supernatural problems!"

That what my Mom called the early stage of my witch's powers. _Supernatural problems._

"I don't need them fixed," I said, my face hard. "Nothing has happened for two months. Maybe... maybe they're gone."

"They're not gone," the man in the hat said. "They're just under more control." He lifted his head and took off his hat. His shoulder-length black hair was greasy with way too many split ends, a long, sharp face and black eyes that split through you like a knife. "I'm Dr. Snape."

Mom grinned. "Dr. Snape thinks he might know why all of this is happening. You might be normal again!"

In other words, my mom was calling me a freak. "I wasn't normal to begin with, I'll never be normal. I'll never fit in with a crowd like you want me to and still get into Harvard or UO like you want. It's one or the other, and we both want it."

"I know where you can be normal," Dr. Snape said slowly.

"Yeah, the mental institution. I don't think anyone has ever gone through all this weird... almost magic disease."

Dr. Snape's beady eyes turned colder. "Yes, they have. Thousands have. I have."

I blinked.

**Please review! I'll give you vertual cookies! :D**


	2. Chapter 2

**I promise the next chapter will be better. This one is like an introduction of Hogwarts to Hermione. Sorry if it's slow.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HP, but I own the plot, unrecognized characters, and the fact Snape says he's a doctor. XD**

_He can't know what I'm going through, _I thought, watching Dr. Snape out of the corner of my eye. For a year I had thought I was alone, hopeless. Everyone was afraid of me, and I didn't like it. _He can't help me. No one can help me._I thought a new medical case would be named after me, like the Hermionaphobia, or the Granger Disease.

I was in the waiting room of his 'doctor's office.' Dr. Snape was working with two twins with red hair and soiled black robes. He called them Weasleys. What are Weasleys? Some kind of rabid monkey-people? Whoever they were, I felt a strange connection to them, that I'd never felt for anyone... but Dr. Snape.

Mom was across from me, calling everyone about how my 'disease' or 'weakness' would be healed, flipping through _Better Homes and Gardens_ magazines.

"Mom?" I asked. She held her finger up to wait a minute. I sighed and laid back in my chair. "You're making me nervous," I muttered. I wish I wasn't in a waiting room so I could curl up in a ball and cry. My eyes wondered back to where Dr. Snape was was talking with Weasleys. He never made any que that he knew I was there.

Eventually Weasleys came out, with red and yellow stiped ties neatly around their necks and tucked in their robes, a crest with a lion on it on their pockets that said 'Gryffindor.' They smiled at me as they walked out the door. My eyes bugged out of my head. Every other stranger frowned and hid their kids when they saw me. It's like I have a freak atmosphere around me.

Dr. Snape took his time walking in the room and calling me back, motioning for Mom to stay. I didn't even glance at her as I walked in his office.

He closed the door behind him and watched me for a while, his eyes sending shivers down my back. "Hermione," he said slowly, his voice even thicker. "Do you know why I'm here?"

"To teach me what I did wrong to give me this freak life?" I asked, hugging my knees to my chest.

"No," he said. "I'm here because you're being careless. You must control your magic."

"Magic? There's no such think as 'magic'. The only 'magic' in my life is how my mom takes care of us without passing out."

Dr. Snape glared at me. "I'm not a doctor. I'm a professor in a wizarding school, where we teach young wizards and witches like you to control your magic. However, how you use it is your plan. But you can't expose wizardry to Muggles."

"Muggles? What in the world are _Muggles?"_

"Humans, you could call them. Those who aren't wizards and witches. You're friends at school are Muggles. You're parents are Muggles. Which makes you a Mudblood."

I don't know what it is about that word, _Mudblood_, that made my blood boil. It just _sounded_ bad. "I'm not a witch!" I said. "I'm a regular human girl that weird things keep happening to." Weird things, kinda like _magical_things. A bully flying into a tree is definitely magical. "Okay. I get what you're saying. But there's no such thing as wizards."

My parents didn't raise me with stories of mythical creaturesor princesses meeting their prince and dancing with them at the ball their Godfairy or whatever sent them to, or underwater fish girls hoping to live on land. They taught me fast that that stuff didn't exist. Including wizards and magic.

"Yes, there is." He took out a long wooden stick and pointed it at a broken beaker in the corner. _"Oculus reparo!"_ The beaker repaired itself right before my eyes. I took a step back in shock as I watched the glass beaker as if it would suddenly shatter. It didn't.

"How -"

"Magic," Professor-Dr. Snape said. "We keep it secret from Muggles and punish wizards or witches that threaten to expose magic, like using it all willy-nilly in front of regular Muggles!" He stuck the wooden stick back in his coat as he gave me a hard glare.

Well, everyone did know I could do magical things. That's as close to exposing magic as I dared to go, right now, anyways. Honestly, this Snape guy (If that was even his real name) was scaring the bejeebers out of me. I almost wanted to take everything he told me and through it out the window, and maybe sign for some therapy...

"- Diagon Alley." I'd been so focused on my inner messed up thoughts, I totally blocked out everything Dr. Snape was saying.

"I'm sorry, sir. What was that?"

Snape gave me a look that said You-Better-Watch-Out-If-You-Don't-Want-On-My-Bad-Side. "Listen this time," he said, glaring at me. "As I was saying, you will be going to our little wizarding school soon, I suppose. Might as well get you on to Diagon Alley." He started to pact the foot, but suddenly stopped. "How old _are_ you, Hermione?"

"I turned ten last month. What's Diagon Alley?"

He acted as if he didn't hear me. "Ten, ten, good. Then you will be eleven when the next school year starts, so you will be getting your admittance letter soon."

"Admittance letter to where? What's a 'Diagon Alley'?"

"Hogwarts, of course. The wizarding school."

Hogwarts? What's it mascot, a giant pig with pimples all over it?

"Diagon Alley is where you can buy your school books and robes. You saw Fred and George, you'll need those robes."

Fred and George... where they those Weasleys that came out of the office? I remembered the 'Gryffindor' symbol on it... what's a Gryffindor? I shook my head, like that would clear out all the thoughts jumbled in my head. "Wha -"

Snape shot me a look that shut me up instantly. "I will explain everything on the way to Diagon Alley. Follow me." He straightened his overcoat and marched out the door. I hesitated, but followed him. I suppose I don't want to get lost in Magic Land.

We were bombarded by my mother as soon as we stepped out of the office.

"What happened? Is my darling going to have any more yucky spells?"

Yucky spells? That's a new way to put it.

I saw Snape roll his eyes. "I have to..." he started, "bring her for further testing. To see if we really can crack this, as you say, 'yucky spell'."

"Oh, well, let's go." She walked for the door.

"Ma'am, we must go alone."

She turned around, looking Snape up and down suspiciously, as if he were going to kidnap me or something. She brought him, and she doesn't even trust him? Look at what that says about my mom. "Well, I suppose. Hermione, you know my number, don't you?"

I nodded and repeated her number. Mom nodded. "Alright, then. Be careful." She kissed my forehead and walked out the door to her car.

Snape grabbed my wrist with such strength I thought he was going to break it. "You must not tell anyone of my visit, or about Hogwarts. Or I will be forced to use the Cruciatus Curse on you." He caught my glance. "Also known as the Torture Curse, one of the Unforgivable Curses."

Without another word, he stalked towards the door, pulling me behind him.

**See? I told you it would be slow. Please tell me how I did! Please? R&R?**


	3. Chapter 3

**Yay! Diagon Alley time!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HP, but I own the plot, unrecognized characters, and the fact Snape says he's a doctor. XD**

Snape took out his wand and tapped bricks on the alley wall, that I really had no idea were there. I didn't know this bar or whatever was here. All I knew was it was cold, dark, and smelled like rat poison. But something about it felt... _right._ Like I belonged there. Maybe because it showed me I'm not the only one who's gone through this freak show. And, possibly, that it could help me control it. I was really getting tired of getting in trouble because of something I couldn't help - but how could they understand?

"Where are we?" I asked. I already knew, I just didn't believe it.

"Diagon Alley," Snape repeated. "Where you will get all your books and supplies for wizarding school." He paused as the bricks folded away, leaving cobble streets with shops and 'Wanted: Have You Seen This Wizard?' flyers, witches and wizards flooding them. I gasped.

I wanted to walk in, and never leave. I fit in better with a street behind a brick alley wall that didn't even exist - I was pretty sure - except to wizards, people like me, then I did at school around the 'Muggles'. How many kids can say that?

"Come along," Snape said. I jumped and realized I was so deep in my thoughts I didn't notice he was already in the doorway of a store. I shook my head, as if that would help, and followed him. Inside was a bar with drunkards playing poker and pool, sober ones smashing wine bottles upside each other's head. Mixed up, right? I'm serious, that's what was happening.

Snape put a firm hand on my shoulder and winded around the maze of people to a corner, where a huge (and hairy) man was sitting at the bar with a metal cup.

"Ah, Snape! Good to see ya!" He laughed. "I see you brought -" He did a double take and stared right at me. "Blimy, Snape! This 'un is just a kid! She ain't old enough to go to Hogwarts!" He glared back at Snape and looked back to me.

"Dumbledore made an exception, Hagrid," Snape said, his voice even colder then usual. He sat on the stood next to Hagrid and talked so low I couldn't hear them over the laughter and conversations of those around me. Hagrid frowned and shook his head though the entire talk.

Hagrid sighed and glanced back at me. "What's your name, girl?"

"Hermione," I said, trying not to let my voice shake, "Hermione Granger. Nice to meet you." I held out my hand politly, holding my head high. Even though inside, I was shaking like a leaf. Hagrid grunted, not even glancing at my hand. I hesitated and pulled it back to my side.

"Well, Snape, I reckon you'd best be gettin' ready for the school year. I'll take Hermione and help her get her things, she'll still have anoth'r year before Hogwarts. She can use that time for studyin' in advance." He nodded at Snape and stood up. He smiled at me. "Come on, Hermione. We gotta get some wizard's books for you."

I had tons of questions to ask him, but he seemed so sure of where he was going and was probably drunk. Hermione's Golden Rules #1: Never make a drunk man that can squash you like a bug angry. It won't end in your favor.

Quite a good rule, if you ask me.

"Mr. Hagrid, I don't have any money."

Hagrid's laughter boomed through the bar, making every wizard (drunk or sober) turn heads. I felt my face turn into a tomato. "Just call me Hagrid, girl. I'm the caretaker at Hogwarts." He put a firm hand the size of a trash can lid on my shoulder and guided me out of the door, back into the alleyway.

I dug in my pocket and pulled out a few emergency pounds my parents gave me. "This is all I have."

"Come on," Hagrid said. "We'll go exchange them there for Galleons." He pointed to a sign that said 'Gringotts'.

My blood ran cold as we walked through Gringotts, ugly goblin creatures watching our every move. I didn't listen to Hagrid's conversations with them, I felt that if I did I would puke. I was starting to feel a little sick to my stomach...

If a few minutes Hagrid had traded my pounds for Galleons with the goblins (Who looked at the pounds with wonder like it was something from outer space).

"Hagrid, I'm not sure if this... Hogwarts is right for me. Or a magic alley."

Hagrid rubbed the top of my head with his giant hand, making my hair look like a fur ball (or more than it already did). "It's a little shocking. Trust me, Hermione, you will get used to it eventually." His laughter boomed as he held my shoulder with a firm grip that felt like he was breaking it, and pulled me farther through Diagon Alley. The farther we got, the sicker I felt.

"What's first?" I asked, swallowing hard. I would just have to tough it.

Hagrid grinned. "What, do ya think we're gettin' your books and such today? No. You ain't even got your Hogwarts acceptance letter!"

I frowned as I felt the Galleons in my pocket. "I - I will get it, won't I?"

His booming laugh echoed. "You will, Hermione, just wait a while. You still got some time left in the Muggle world."

_"Muggle."_ I whispered. The word felt strange on my lips. "So I have to go back to that school? Be treated like a freak again?" I kicked at the cobblestone under my feet. The only way I toughed through this was tell myself that I would never have to face that terrible school again.

"I'm afraid so. But, if you'd like, you can prep for Hogwarts. Get some o' that magic under control."

I nodded. "Yes, please. Anything to stop some of that teasing."

Hagrid flashed me his toothy grin again and turned onto another walk in the alley. Witches and wizards roaming the street stared at me like I was an alien. I shrank back behind Hagrid as I followed him farther down the long road.

Before long we reached Hagrid turned into the doorway of a large bookstore. Books were magically flying on and off shelves to wizards' hands, it looked like it could take practically take care of itself. Hagrid walked through the rows of shelves, hardly looking at them, and stopped at a shelf against the wall that scaled to the ceiling. He picked a book out of the stacks.

The book smashed into my hands like a led weight. "Here's the history o' Hogwarts. Better get caught up on that."

I peeled some of the pages back and looked at the tiny words. "These pages are bigger than the party platter tray Mom bought to feed twenty. How old is Hogwarts, anyway?" I closed the book and dropped it on the table beside me. I clapped the dust off my hands.

"If I told ya, you wouldn't believe me." He peeled another book of the shelf and slapped in on top of the history book.

After checkout, as we walked though Diagon Alley, Hagrid kept a long stride ahead; I hardly kempt him in sight with a sprint. It gave me no time to ask the dozens of questions on my mind. The books weighed me down, I was almost ready to call down Hagrid to help me. But he gave no indication he knew I was following.

* * *

"I'm home!" I yelled, kicking the door closed with my foot and throwing the books of the sofa. My arms tingled as they tried to regain blood flow.

I heard stomps down the stairs and Mum appeared in the doorway. She looked up and froze, her eyes wide. She slowly backed against the wall, her eyes glued on me with a look of terror, like I was an alien species. Her chest rose and fell in choppy, quick breaths.

"Mum, it's me. Hermione." I took half a step forward and she pressed herself against the wall.

She turned around and ran up the stairs. I stood there, my mouth half open in shock for a few seconds, staring at the top stair.

I grabbed my books and ran to my room, the back of my throat and eyes burning with tears I refused to spill.

**I know, I know, this chapter is horrible. I can't even reread it without fearing I'll hate it in erase it, which means another five months of writer's block. This chapter was HARD to write! And sorry for not updating, the need to write just _left._ I'd groan when thinking 'I need to update my stories.' But I'm back baby, I'm BACK! R&R please!**


	4. Chapter 4

**I wrote some of this in the hotel and in the car on the way home from visiting family. =) But I was a little loopy from lack of sleep and too much time in the car, so I know it's bad. I'm too tired to fix it now, but it looks fine to me. I wrote in the car until she jumps out the window, that's when it gets good.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HP, but I own the plot and unknown characters. So NO STEALING!**

For the next weeks on end, I put away all my fantasy 'geek' books, and focused on the books I got with Hagrid. They were more interesting than I thought they'd be; much more interesting than history books about any Muggle school. It wasn't 'On June 13, 1943, we got a new reading teacher' but more like 'On June 13, 1943, a pupil was killed by a giant serpent and is now believed to be haunting the girls' bathroom on the 2rd floor. But won't worry, she's harmless... we think.'

I had a mental note to check the girls' bathroom on the 2nd floor.

But however interesting it might be, I wasn't saved from being called a freak or a weirdo. This got even worse when the teacher took up the Hogwarts history book, or as she called it, the 'Big book about an imaginary school that made fun of an animal's unfortunate warts.'

I almost couldn't stop myself from throwing her through a wall.

Teachers and students weren't the only ones who thought it was weird. My parents, especially my mum, treated me like I had an incurable, contagious disease. They would apologize, but wouldn't get within ten feet of me. I desperately hoped it was just a phase all Muggle-borns' parents went though, because it hurt me terribly.

I cried myself to sleep every night.

I didn't see Sape or Hagrid again, no sign that the secret world I belonged to was still real. The books that were by my side 24/7 were all that kept me from thinking the trip with Hagrid wasn't a dream, a glorious dream where everyone was a 'freak' like me. On the other hand, it reminded me that I was still shunned in my reality life.

But I would rather have them than not.

My magic, thankfully, was getting more and more under control. I only had one mishap when I first got them - the books - and hadn't read anything. One more girl though a wall. She was sent to the hospital and expected to make a full recovery, unfortunately.

It was great fun, though.

I was already counting the days until my 11th birthday, when I could finally get my acceptance letter. Every morning, as soon as I woke, I made a big X in the box of that day on my calendar on my wall and count the remaining days and months. The days were too slow for my liking. There was nothing for me to look forward too but torment and reticule, teasing and being a 'geek' or a 'nerd'. But to these Muggles, I was. I knew Hogwarts would be the only place I'd fit in.

One day down, 526 to go.

Witches and wizards, according to my book, were required to hide their magic from Muggles. Most were brought up my at least one magical parent, and were taught from a young age how to control magic when they were upset or mad. I was Muggle-born and had no magic parents, and because of that, I was a freak to my classmates and parents.

So it wasn't my fault.

* * *

I sat at the dinner table with my parents in uncomfortable silence, the only sound was rain pattering the roof and window, the occasional thunder. They were as far as they could get from me: Across the length of the table, their chairs pushed as far back as they could and still be able to reach their plates. I sat pushing my food around on my plate.

Tears stinging my eyes, I stood up and picked up my plate. "May I be excused?"

They said nothing, but exchanged looks as they continued eating.

My head bowed, I walked down the hall to my room, not caring that my too-full glass was sloshing red liquid all over the carpet. I slammed the door of my room shut as I dropped my plate, shattering it and spilling meat and vegetables all over my floor. I didn't care; I didn't have the appetite to eat it anyway.

I sat with my back against the door as I finally allowed the tears to stream down my cheeks. I felt the blood rush to my eyes as they turned red and puffy. My vision was dimmed by tears as I glanced around my room, my eyes falling to the calendar. Two months until I turned ten. It was too long.

I was hardly conscious of what I was doing as I emptied out the army green messenger bag I used for school, textbooks being strewn all over the floor. I jerked a few shirts and jeans from hangers in my closet and threw them in, with my books, and threw in the remaining galleons and pounds I had. I threw in my calendar and a pen. I snapped it shut and threw the strap around my neck and shoulder.

I jumped on my bed and grabbed the window sill. It slowly came open, blasting me with smells of rain and nature. Looking over my shoulder one last time, I threw my leg on the other side of the window, groping my way on the outside. I didn't bother to close the window, I just started running.

Rain pricked my skin like needles as I ran down the driveway, my bag bumping my side. I had no idea where I was going, just that I wanted to get away from my judgmental parents. I hesitated at the driveway, weighing my options. Shivering from the cold, I ran down the road on my left.

It was deserted, everyone inside their homes to get away from the storm. Water sloshed up on my calf to my end of my shorts as I ran through the streets. Thunder rolled up ahead, and a bolt of lightning sprang through the sky, lighting my path. It was gone as fast as it came. I knew I couldn't ask anyone in this town to help me, they'd just send me back to my parents. If they did, I feared, my next step might be to try to kill myself.

Though I knew it would never happen, I wished desperately that Hagrid or Snape would be in the shadows of a building. I tried to remember the way back to Diagon Alley, or at least The Leaky Cauldron. But it slipped my mind.

How long would it be before my parents found out I was gone? Would they care? Or would they be happy the 'freak' was out of their house?

These were the questions circling in my mind as I sloshed through the streets. The rain was coming down hard now, wind blowing my hair and bag behind me so hard I had to tip my head forward. Trees bent towards me, branches threating to snap. I knew that I should get shelter, even if I couldn't take shelter in someone's house.

I tried to shield the rain from my eyes, already stinging, as I looked around for shelter. Rain still blurred my view. I remembered a little old lady just up the street with an old garden shed that was never used. Though she loved flowers and gardens, she didn't have the mobility nor the time to keep a thriving one.

Surely no one would search an old shed in a rainstorm. I glanced up at the sky. The growling, vicious gray clouds didn't look like they were going anywhere any time soon. They would definitely last the night. I would spend the night in the shed, and be out as soon as the storm ended.

I convinced myself it was a solid plan as the old woman's house came into view. I jogged around the side of her yard and to her garden shed.

It was just as I remembered it. Solid brick, with a thick metal roof. Very well built. It's a shame it wasn't used anymore; it was in mint condition.

The door, a thick layer of rust build up over time, refused to move. I threw my back against it and shoved as hard as I could, grunting as if it would help. Eventually the door came slightly ajar, and I stuck in my foot in to move a few stray hoes from blocking the door as I pushed it the remaining way open.

A musty, moldy smell hit me as soon as I walked inside. It was very dark, only the occasional lightning casting a quick blue glow through the open door and dirty old window. Garden tools lay everywhere, pots broken, and shelves threating to give way from the walls. Needless to say, it looked better on the outside.

I shoved the door closed behind me and felt my way through the shed. I decided, even though I doubted anyone would come in, I should stay hidden. Groping my way behind a pile of trowels and shovels, I threw my bag on the ground for a pillow, and, ignoring the filthy cement floor, collapsed onto the ground.

"Ouch!"

It wasn't me.

**I got SUPER close to Moaning Myrtle's death date when I was writing in my notebook. June 5, 1940. She actually died June 13, 1943. I had no idea that her death date was even in the books! Pretty sweet, eh?**

**Well, I hope you liked this chapter! Please review and tell me what you think, criticism welcomed! =)**


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